Program aims to encourage minority students to consider energy jobs

3:12 PM,
Oct. 30, 2013

Alex Tranmer, a Level 4 operator at Gulf Power's Plant Crist, leads a group of high school students past one of the four turbines the company uses to generate electricity to serve customers. The tour was part of an event run by the American Association of Blacks in Energy for BEAM ? Black Energy Awareness Month.

Written by

Rhema Thompson
rthompson3@pnj.com

Armed with several plastic pipes of varying widths and a marble, about 75 high school students broken into five teams were charged by Gulf Power senior engineer Antonio Terry with a daunting task.

The teams had to figure out a way to get a single marble across the lengthy conference room through the pipes without touching it or allowing it to hit the floor. In their pathway were tables and chairs that they were not allowed to move. A member of each team was blind-folded.

"This will not be fair," Terry, a senior engineer in technical services, told the group. "If you want fair go to the fairgrounds." ...